Trump travel ban: Judge expands definition of 'close relative'

Washington, July 14 (IANS) Grandparents and other relatives of people living in the US cannot be barred from entering under President Trump’s travel ban, a judge has ruled.

The order on Thursday night by District Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii, is a fresh legal blow to Trump’s immigration crackdown, reports the BBC.

The judge said the ban had interpreted a Supreme Court ruling too narrowly.

The decision, made last month, partly reinstated the ban on refugees and travellers from six Muslim-majority countries.

It said only those with “bona fide” family ties that did not include grandparents, as well as grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces and cousins would be let into the US.

The judge condemned the government’s definition of a close relative as “unduly restrictive”, the BBC reported.

“Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents. Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members”,” Judge Watson wrote in the ruling.

The Supreme Court is still considering President Trump’s attempt to prevent people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from travelling to the US.